Jack Bush, Spot on Red, 1960, oil on canvas. Gift of Ayala and Samuel Zachs, 1962 (05-025) © Jack Bush Estate / SODRAC (2009)
Exhibitions
Brigh Colours, Big Canvas:
Jack Bush
Historical Feature and R. Fraser Elliott Galleries
9 May - 25 October
Highlighting the dazzling large-scale abstracts painted by Jack Bush in the 1960s and 1970s, this exhibition presents work that sings, vibrating with colour. Though everyday things often incited Bush to paint, when brush came to canvas, the result was decidedly abstract, and far from his early landscapes. But this exhibition is not about artistic evolution; rather it is a celebration of the visually explosive mature period in the artist’s oeuvre.
All the canvases were painted in the years following Bush’s legendary 1957 meeting with the influential New York art critic Clement Greenberg, who coined the term post-painterly abstraction. And all are from the Art Centre’s impressive collection of the artist’s work.
Bush’s use of high-keyed colour and thinned paint, soaked into large expanses of unprimed canvas, had a profound influence on abstract art in Canada, and particularly Toronto. Bright Colours, Big Canvas also features works by other abstract artists who lived in Toronto during this period and were inspired by Bush’s example. These artists-David Bolduc, Alex Cameron, Paul Fournier, K.M. Graham, Milly Ristvedt, Daniel Solomon and Carol Sutton-made their own explorations of colour and paint on a grand scale.